Apart from the Bible, almanacs were the most influential and widely
dispersed for of literature in Tudor and Stuart England. At their
zenith in the later seventeenth century, they sold at a rate of
400,000 copies a year. They were read by many people who read
little else, and the works of Shakespeare and Jonson, among others,
have numerous references to them. Professor Capp's fascinating book
(Faber, 1979) is the first to study their history in depth. It is
full of vivid detail, and shows clearly how relevant they were to
almost every aspect of life, social, intellectual, religious,
political. As well as being a powerful force in revolutionary
times, they played a central part in spreading scientific progress
and medical learning, and in the development of popular journalism
and printing. Possessing some of the characteristics of both pocket
encyclopaedia and sermon, they conveyed information and/or moral
commentary on such diverse topics as attitudes to rich and poor,
agriculture, gardening, weights and measures, food , drink, sex,
sleep, dress, bodily cleanliness, games, fairs, holidays, the
weather, the state of the roads, posts, freemasonry, omens,
witchcraft, will-making and even the sale of wives - in addition to
making dramatic astrological prophecies about the likelihood of
plague, famine and war in the year ahead.
General
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